I reviewed Re:Zero today, so that'll be the daily post.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/56619187

More than meets the eye, again and again.

At first, things seem quiet and unremarkable. A cliché premise, cliché developments, cliché characters... Actually, things didn't seem quiet and unremarkable at all; Re:Zero seemed boring and uninteresting. More of that ever-pouring slop Japanese webnovels insist on becoming, more of that persistent stench of mediocrity and the unbridled numbness of barren creativity.

Re:Zero is just more of the same old, same old.

At first...

But, at first, even the normal is strange. Even as we're born, we cry. We're confused, lost, terrified as the world that we now take for granted assaults our senses and wrecks our mind and body alike. Voices endless, smells, feelings, all of it is so much---too much! What makes life beautiful aren't the large pieces that we all have in common, but the small distinctions that make us unique. One would assume death is the same, of course.

All one can do is assume death is the same. That is, of course, except for Natsuki Subaru.

Re:Zero throws us into the typical isekai fantasy world---it even tricks us for a bit!---but pretty soon we understand that that's not the case at all. Natsuki Subaru doesn't die. Or rather, he dies and is then reborn. He gets to try again. That's what Re:Zero is about.

What if you could try again? What if your biggest failures were erased and you had a do-over?

As a premise, this is brilliant. It's not the first time I've read a time-travel story with a somewhat similar outline---shout-out to Mother of Learning---but Re:Zero is unique enough from within what I've read to trigger that novelty factor.

The cast is extensive and varied, including several of the traditional isekai tropes while continuously subverting them in some of the most creative ways possible. Even Subaru himself, the MC, is a subversion of the typical isekai MC. He reminds me of Kazuma from KonoSuba, actually, at first.

That's always the point, isn't it? At first, at first, at first... There's always more than meets the eye.

If that was all that Re:Zero was, it would be enough to make for a good story. However, Subaru is faced with the flip-side of his condition: he loses all the good parts too. The pain, the suffering, the despair that dripped from the pages when he loses everything was at times so overwhelming I actually had to take a breather. It's like the Witch's miasma bled through the screen and seeped into my eyes---that's the only reason I cried, of course...

What if you had to choose? What if you could try again, but even then you failed?

The ever-growing pressure of his mistakes digs into your heart and crushes your very soul, I'm telling you. Seeing him come to terms with how much he's lost and watching him gather the courage to keep going... It's beyond fantastic.

My biggest gripes with the novel are the following:

• The translation is mediocre and littered with errors;
• Subaru does too much talk no jutsu.

Still, it's not a big deal. I'm used to reading webnovels, so reading a poor translation isn't a significant problem; I just expected more. Subaru's incessant yapping can get frustrating at times, but I can rationalize it by saying that, well, if he dies, he can just try something else. When it works, it's hard to say that that wasn't the best option so... I can't really complain... I just don't like it that much. Let it be known, though, Re:Zero isn't just Subaru's yapsesh; he very much works! He tries, and fails, and tries, and fails, and he tries again. He tries everything he can think of. What I love most, perhaps, is that he doesn't get random power-ups like you see in other series. He gets stronger by failing and learning. He improves slowly by trial and error. It's really satisfying to see him figure things out!

The world is getting more and more complex by the volume, by the chapter, by the page really. By Volume 15, it felt like the world had grown ten-fold, both geographically and lore-wise. It's so complex and enticing with so many mysteries to dive into. I can't wait to learn more.

I mentioned the extensive cast already, but there's really no reason not to bring it up again. There isn't a single character I dislike in this whole thing. There are characters that are very much despicable, yes, but there aren't any of those cliché "bad because they're bad" or "good no matter what" characters. Every character is either extremely complex, with believable and deeply emotional motivations, or simply not developed enough to tell just yet. After all, there's so many characters but only so many pages to talk about them. I don't think that's to the detriment of the narrative in the slightest, though.

Really, the only character I actually have sincere gripes with is Subaru himself! Specifically in regards to his choice of heroine. He's wrong, and I'll stand by that. He's the only character in the whole series whose motivation I question. You'd think this would be a big deal, but it really isn't. He's an idiot, an irredeemable moron. That's what makes his story so compelling: we get to see an irredeemable moron turn into a somewhat redeemable moron, little by little, life by life, death by death.

Is this the greatest masterpiece of the 21st century? The century isn't over just yet, but it's in the running; I'll tell you that much.

What do you think?

---

Rating: 5/5

Read on Witch Cult Translations!
Disclaimer: I read the Light Novel version of Re:Zero, not the WCT webnovel translation.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/56619187

More than meets the eye, again and again.

At first, things seem quiet and unremarkable. A cliché premise, cliché developments, cliché characters... Actually, things didn't seem quiet and unremarkable at all; Re:Zero seemed boring and uninteresting. More of that ever-pouring slop Japanese webnovels insist on becoming, more of that persistent stench of mediocrity and the unbridled numbness of barren creativity.

Re:Zero is just more of the same old, same old.

At first...

But, at first, even the normal is strange. Even as we're born, we cry. We're confused, lost, terrified as the world that we now take for granted assaults our senses and wrecks our mind and body alike. Voices endless, smells, feelings, all of it is so much---too much! What makes life beautiful aren't the large pieces that we all have in common, but the small distinctions that make us unique. One would assume death is the same, of course.

All one can do is assume death is the same. That is, of course, except for Natsuki Subaru.

Re:Zero throws us into the typical isekai fantasy world---it even tricks us for a bit!---but pretty soon we understand that that's not the case at all. Natsuki Subaru doesn't die. Or rather, he dies and is then reborn. He gets to try again. That's what Re:Zero is about.

What if you could try again? What if your biggest failures were erased and you had a do-over?

As a premise, this is brilliant. It's not the first time I've read a time-travel story with a somewhat similar outline---shout-out to Mother of Learning---but Re:Zero is unique enough from within what I've read to trigger that novelty factor.

The cast is extensive and varied, including several of the traditional isekai tropes while continuously subverting them in some of the most creative ways possible. Even Subaru himself, the MC, is a subversion of the typical isekai MC. He reminds me of Kazuma from KonoSuba, actually, at first.

That's always the point, isn't it? At first, at first, at first... There's always more than meets the eye.

If that was all that Re:Zero was, it would be enough to make for a good story. However, Subaru is faced with the flip-side of his condition: he loses all the good parts too. The pain, the suffering, the despair that dripped from the pages when he loses everything was at times so overwhelming I actually had to take a breather. It's like the Witch's miasma bled through the screen and seeped into my eyes---that's the only reason I cried, of course...

What if you had to choose? What if you could try again, but even then you failed?

The ever-growing pressure of his mistakes digs into your heart and crushes your very soul, I'm telling you. Seeing him come to terms with how much he's lost and watching him gather the courage to keep going... It's beyond fantastic.

My biggest gripes with the novel are the following:

• The translation is mediocre and littered with errors;
• Subaru does too much talk no jutsu.

Still, it's not a big deal. I'm used to reading webnovels, so reading a poor translation isn't a significant problem; I just expected more. Subaru's incessant yapping can get frustrating at times, but I can rationalize it by saying that, well, if he dies, he can just try something else. When it works, it's hard to say that that wasn't the best option so... I can't really complain... I just don't like it that much. Let it be known, though, Re:Zero isn't just Subaru's yapsesh; he very much works! He tries, and fails, and tries, and fails, and he tries again. He tries everything he can think of. What I love most, perhaps, is that he doesn't get random power-ups like you see in other series. He gets stronger by failing and learning. He improves slowly by trial and error. It's really satisfying to see him figure things out!

The world is getting more and more complex by the volume, by the chapter, by the page really. By Volume 15, it felt like the world had grown ten-fold, both geographically and lore-wise. It's so complex and enticing with so many mysteries to dive into. I can't wait to learn more.

I mentioned the extensive cast already, but there's really no reason not to bring it up again. There isn't a single character I dislike in this whole thing. There are characters that are very much despicable, yes, but there aren't any of those cliché "bad because they're bad" or "good no matter what" characters. Every character is either extremely complex, with believable and deeply emotional motivations, or simply not developed enough to tell just yet. After all, there's so many characters but only so many pages to talk about them. I don't think that's to the detriment of the narrative in the slightest, though.

Really, the only character I actually have sincere gripes with is Subaru himself! Specifically in regards to his choice of heroine. He's wrong, and I'll stand by that. He's the only character in the whole series whose motivation I question. You'd think this would be a big deal, but it really isn't. He's an idiot, an irredeemable moron. That's what makes his story so compelling: we get to see an irredeemable moron turn into a somewhat redeemable moron, little by little, life by life, death by death.

Is this the greatest masterpiece of the 21st century? The century isn't over just yet, but it's in the running; I'll tell you that much.

What do you think?

---

Rating: 5/5

Read on Witch Cult Translations!
Disclaimer: I read the Light Novel version of Re:Zero, not the WCT webnovel translation.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/56619187

More than meets the eye, again and again.

At first, things seem quiet and unremarkable. A cliché premise, cliché developments, cliché characters... Actually, things didn't seem quiet and unremarkable at all; Re:Zero seemed boring and uninteresting. More of that ever-pouring slop Japanese webnovels insist on becoming, more of that persistent stench of mediocrity and the unbridled numbness of barren creativity.

Re:Zero is just more of the same old, same old.

At first...

But, at first, even the normal is strange. Even as we're born, we cry. We're confused, lost, terrified as the world that we now take for granted assaults our senses and wrecks our mind and body alike. Voices endless, smells, feelings, all of it is so much---too much! What makes life beautiful aren't the large pieces that we all have in common, but the small distinctions that make us unique. One would assume death is the same, of course.

All one can do is assume death is the same. That is, of course, except for Natsuki Subaru.

Re:Zero throws us into the typical isekai fantasy world---it even tricks us for a bit!---but pretty soon we understand that that's not the case at all. Natsuki Subaru doesn't die. Or rather, he dies and is then reborn. He gets to try again. That's what Re:Zero is about.

What if you could try again? What if your biggest failures were erased and you had a do-over?

As a premise, this is brilliant. It's not the first time I've read a time-travel story with a somewhat similar outline---shout-out to Mother of Learning---but Re:Zero is unique enough from within what I've read to trigger that novelty factor.

The cast is extensive and varied, including several of the traditional isekai tropes while continuously subverting them in some of the most creative ways possible. Even Subaru himself, the MC, is a subversion of the typical isekai MC. He reminds me of Kazuma from KonoSuba, actually, at first.

That's always the point, isn't it? At first, at first, at first... There's always more than meets the eye.

If that was all that Re:Zero was, it would be enough to make for a good story. However, Subaru is faced with the flip-side of his condition: he loses all the good parts too. The pain, the suffering, the despair that dripped from the pages when he loses everything was at times so overwhelming I actually had to take a breather. It's like the Witch's miasma bled through the screen and seeped into my eyes---that's the only reason I cried, of course...

What if you had to choose? What if you could try again, but even then you failed?

The ever-growing pressure of his mistakes digs into your heart and crushes your very soul, I'm telling you. Seeing him come to terms with how much he's lost and watching him gather the courage to keep going... It's beyond fantastic.

My biggest gripes with the novel are the following:

• The translation is mediocre and littered with errors;
• Subaru does too much talk no jutsu.

Still, it's not a big deal. I'm used to reading webnovels, so reading a poor translation isn't a significant problem; I just expected more. Subaru's incessant yapping can get frustrating at times, but I can rationalize it by saying that, well, if he dies, he can just try something else. When it works, it's hard to say that that wasn't the best option so... I can't really complain... I just don't like it that much. Let it be known, though, Re:Zero isn't just Subaru's yapsesh; he very much works! He tries, and fails, and tries, and fails, and he tries again. He tries everything he can think of. What I love most, perhaps, is that he doesn't get random power-ups like you see in other series. He gets stronger by failing and learning. He improves slowly by trial and error. It's really satisfying to see him figure things out!

The world is getting more and more complex by the volume, by the chapter, by the page really. By Volume 15, it felt like the world had grown ten-fold, both geographically and lore-wise. It's so complex and enticing with so many mysteries to dive into. I can't wait to learn more.

I mentioned the extensive cast already, but there's really no reason not to bring it up again. There isn't a single character I dislike in this whole thing. There are characters that are very much despicable, yes, but there aren't any of those cliché "bad because they're bad" or "good no matter what" characters. Every character is either extremely complex, with believable and deeply emotional motivations, or simply not developed enough to tell just yet. After all, there's so many characters but only so many pages to talk about them. I don't think that's to the detriment of the narrative in the slightest, though.

Really, the only character I actually have sincere gripes with is Subaru himself! Specifically in regards to his choice of heroine. He's wrong, and I'll stand by that. He's the only character in the whole series whose motivation I question. You'd think this would be a big deal, but it really isn't. He's an idiot, an irredeemable moron. That's what makes his story so compelling: we get to see an irredeemable moron turn into a somewhat redeemable moron, little by little, life by life, death by death.

Is this the greatest masterpiece of the 21st century? The century isn't over just yet, but it's in the running; I'll tell you that much.

What do you think?

---

Rating: 5/5

Read on Witch Cult Translations!
Disclaimer: I read the Light Novel version of Re:Zero, not the WCT webnovel translation.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/56619187

More than meets the eye, again and again.

At first, things seem quiet and unremarkable. A cliché premise, cliché developments, cliché characters... Actually, things didn't seem quiet and unremarkable at all; Re:Zero seemed boring and uninteresting. More of that ever-pouring slop Japanese webnovels insist on becoming, more of that persistent stench of mediocrity and the unbridled numbness of barren creativity.

Re:Zero is just more of the same old, same old.

At first...

But, at first, even the normal is strange. Even as we're born, we cry. We're confused, lost, terrified as the world that we now take for granted assaults our senses and wrecks our mind and body alike. Voices endless, smells, feelings, all of it is so much---too much! What makes life beautiful aren't the large pieces that we all have in common, but the small distinctions that make us unique. One would assume death is the same, of course.

All one can do is assume death is the same. That is, of course, except for Natsuki Subaru.

Re:Zero throws us into the typical isekai fantasy world---it even tricks us for a bit!---but pretty soon we understand that that's not the case at all. Natsuki Subaru doesn't die. Or rather, he dies and is then reborn. He gets to try again. That's what Re:Zero is about.

What if you could try again? What if your biggest failures were erased and you had a do-over?

As a premise, this is brilliant. It's not the first time I've read a time-travel story with a somewhat similar outline---shout-out to Mother of Learning---but Re:Zero is unique enough from within what I've read to trigger that novelty factor.

The cast is extensive and varied, including several of the traditional isekai tropes while continuously subverting them in some of the most creative ways possible. Even Subaru himself, the MC, is a subversion of the typical isekai MC. He reminds me of Kazuma from KonoSuba, actually, at first.

That's always the point, isn't it? At first, at first, at first... There's always more than meets the eye.

If that was all that Re:Zero was, it would be enough to make for a good story. However, Subaru is faced with the flip-side of his condition: he loses all the good parts too. The pain, the suffering, the despair that dripped from the pages when he loses everything was at times so overwhelming I actually had to take a breather. It's like the Witch's miasma bled through the screen and seeped into my eyes---that's the only reason I cried, of course...

What if you had to choose? What if you could try again, but even then you failed?

The ever-growing pressure of his mistakes digs into your heart and crushes your very soul, I'm telling you. Seeing him come to terms with how much he's lost and watching him gather the courage to keep going... It's beyond fantastic.

My biggest gripes with the novel are the following:

• The translation is mediocre and littered with errors;
• Subaru does too much talk no jutsu.

Still, it's not a big deal. I'm used to reading webnovels, so reading a poor translation isn't a significant problem; I just expected more. Subaru's incessant yapping can get frustrating at times, but I can rationalize it by saying that, well, if he dies, he can just try something else. When it works, it's hard to say that that wasn't the best option so... I can't really complain... I just don't like it that much. Let it be known, though, Re:Zero isn't just Subaru's yapsesh; he very much works! He tries, and fails, and tries, and fails, and he tries again. He tries everything he can think of. What I love most, perhaps, is that he doesn't get random power-ups like you see in other series. He gets stronger by failing and learning. He improves slowly by trial and error. It's really satisfying to see him figure things out!

The world is getting more and more complex by the volume, by the chapter, by the page really. By Volume 15, it felt like the world had grown ten-fold, both geographically and lore-wise. It's so complex and enticing with so many mysteries to dive into. I can't wait to learn more.

I mentioned the extensive cast already, but there's really no reason not to bring it up again. There isn't a single character I dislike in this whole thing. There are characters that are very much despicable, yes, but there aren't any of those cliché "bad because they're bad" or "good no matter what" characters. Every character is either extremely complex, with believable and deeply emotional motivations, or simply not developed enough to tell just yet. After all, there's so many characters but only so many pages to talk about them. I don't think that's to the detriment of the narrative in the slightest, though.

Really, the only character I actually have sincere gripes with is Subaru himself! Specifically in regards to his choice of heroine. He's wrong, and I'll stand by that. He's the only character in the whole series whose motivation I question. You'd think this would be a big deal, but it really isn't. He's an idiot, an irredeemable moron. That's what makes his story so compelling: we get to see an irredeemable moron turn into a somewhat redeemable moron, little by little, life by life, death by death.

Is this the greatest masterpiece of the 21st century? The century isn't over just yet, but it's in the running; I'll tell you that much.

What do you think?

---

Rating: 5/5

Read on Witch Cult Translations!
Disclaimer: I read the Light Novel version of Re:Zero, not the WCT webnovel translation.

More than meets the eye, again and again.

At first, things seem quiet and unremarkable. A cliché premise, cliché developments, cliché characters... Actually, things didn't seem quiet and unremarkable at all; Re:Zero seemed boring and uninteresting. More of that ever-pouring slop Japanese webnovels insist on becoming, more of that persistent stench of mediocrity and the unbridled numbness of barren creativity.

Re:Zero is just more of the same old, same old.

At first...

But, at first, even the normal is strange. Even as we're born, we cry. We're confused, lost, terrified as the world that we now take for granted assaults our senses and wrecks our mind and body alike. Voices endless, smells, feelings, all of it is so much---too much! What makes life beautiful aren't the large pieces that we all have in common, but the small distinctions that make us unique. One would assume death is the same, of course.

All one can do is assume death is the same. That is, of course, except for Natsuki Subaru.

Re:Zero throws us into the typical isekai fantasy world---it even tricks us for a bit!---but pretty soon we understand that that's not the case at all. Natsuki Subaru doesn't die. Or rather, he dies and is then reborn. He gets to try again. That's what Re:Zero is about.

What if you could try again? What if your biggest failures were erased and you had a do-over?

As a premise, this is brilliant. It's not the first time I've read a time-travel story with a somewhat similar outline---shout-out to Mother of Learning---but Re:Zero is unique enough from within what I've read to trigger that novelty factor.

The cast is extensive and varied, including several of the traditional isekai tropes while continuously subverting them in some of the most creative ways possible. Even Subaru himself, the MC, is a subversion of the typical isekai MC. He reminds me of Kazuma from KonoSuba, actually, at first.

That's always the point, isn't it? At first, at first, at first... There's always more than meets the eye.

If that was all that Re:Zero was, it would be enough to make for a good story. However, Subaru is faced with the flip-side of his condition: he loses all the good parts too. The pain, the suffering, the despair that dripped from the pages when he loses everything was at times so overwhelming I actually had to take a breather. It's like the Witch's miasma bled through the screen and seeped into my eyes---that's the only reason I cried, of course...

What if you had to choose? What if you could try again, but even then you failed?

The ever-growing pressure of his mistakes digs into your heart and crushes your very soul, I'm telling you. Seeing him come to terms with how much he's lost and watching him gather the courage to keep going... It's beyond fantastic.

My biggest gripes with the novel are the following:

• The translation is mediocre and littered with errors;
• Subaru does too much talk no jutsu.

Still, it's not a big deal. I'm used to reading webnovels, so reading a poor translation isn't a significant problem; I just expected more. Subaru's incessant yapping can get frustrating at times, but I can rationalize it by saying that, well, if he dies, he can just try something else. When it works, it's hard to say that that wasn't the best option so... I can't really complain... I just don't like it that much. Let it be known, though, Re:Zero isn't just Subaru's yapsesh; he very much works! He tries, and fails, and tries, and fails, and he tries again. He tries everything he can think of. What I love most, perhaps, is that he doesn't get random power-ups like you see in other series. He gets stronger by failing and learning. He improves slowly by trial and error. It's really satisfying to see him figure things out!

The world is getting more and more complex by the volume, by the chapter, by the page really. By Volume 15, it felt like the world had grown ten-fold, both geographically and lore-wise. It's so complex and enticing with so many mysteries to dive into. I can't wait to learn more.

I mentioned the extensive cast already, but there's really no reason not to bring it up again. There isn't a single character I dislike in this whole thing. There are characters that are very much despicable, yes, but there aren't any of those cliché "bad because they're bad" or "good no matter what" characters. Every character is either extremely complex, with believable and deeply emotional motivations, or simply not developed enough to tell just yet. After all, there's so many characters but only so many pages to talk about them. I don't think that's to the detriment of the narrative in the slightest, though.

Really, the only character I actually have sincere gripes with is Subaru himself! Specifically in regards to his choice of heroine. He's wrong, and I'll stand by that. He's the only character in the whole series whose motivation I question. You'd think this would be a big deal, but it really isn't. He's an idiot, an irredeemable moron. That's what makes his story so compelling: we get to see an irredeemable moron turn into a somewhat redeemable moron, little by little, life by life, death by death.

Is this the greatest masterpiece of the 21st century? The century isn't over just yet, but it's in the running; I'll tell you that much.

What do you think?

Rating: 5/5

Read on Witch Cult Translations!
Disclaimer: I read the Light Novel version of Re:Zero, not the WCT webnovel translation.

I recently came across Romance Neolatino (Neolatin). It's an auxiliary conlang based on romance languages which aimed to be like a natural evolution of Vulgar Latin---that's what Wikipedia says, at least. I think that's a really neat idea.

I knew of Interlingua already and how understandable it was for romance language speakers, such as myself, but Neolatino is even more so.

These languages really aren't very useful, of course. After all, if two people want to understand each other, especially if they already speak languages in the same family, then they might as well just learn each other's language instead of diving into some conlang that nobody actually speaks. The benefits of learning Neolatino would be to kind of surprise people by speaking something that they don't recognize and yet understand? Maybe? Which is rather silly, of course.

I should really learn French...

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/56496251

I'd like to add to suggest a couple of things regarding Mastodon and user onboarding/retention.

The Server Selection Problem^TM^

The single biggest problem with Mastodon adoption is the fact people see talk about a server and give up. As such, servers need to be removed from the conversation and onboarding process. A server still needs to be selected for a new user, however, which raises the question: How should we select a server for a new user?

The obvious solution is to simply direct users to mastodon.social, which is actually what Mastodon already does to a certain extent. The issue with this is that the Fediverse is meant to be decentralized. As such, it's counterproductive to funnel people towards a single server. This causes maintenance bottlenecks and privacy/data-protection concerns.

As such, there needs to be some sort of method that ranks servers based on a few factors in order to select the optimal server for any given user, while keeping the decentralized nature of the Fediverse in mind.

Why any server?

First, it's important to answer the question of why would any given user pick any given server.

Generally speaking, the server isn't a big deal, as in, any server allows users to interact with the whole of the network in its full capacity.

All servers are Mastodon, after all.

However, there are differences. The most significant ones are, I'd say: location, uptime, and language.

A user benefits from being registered to a server that's geographically close to them, as that leads to a better connection. Additionally, servers with high uptime and stability are preferred, as users may have different times they use the server and nobody likes to try and access a server and see that it's down for any number of reasons. Finally, users need to be able to understand the language the server is in (obviously).

I believe these three factors should be at the forefront of the decision-making process for deciding what server to be suggested to any given user on sign-up.

Auto-selector

With that, comes the solution: a server auto-selector. A game I play, DCSS, actually does something similar for online play.

(I have my location turned off and there are very few servers, as you can see, so listing them is trivial.)

This isn't exactly a novel scientific breakthrough, but I think it's a significant notion for helping the onboarding process for new Mastodon users.

A server auto-selector should filter servers to suggest by following these steps:

• Detect the user's system language.
• Detect the user's location.
• Calculate the server's uptime score.
• Pseudo-rank user-count.

I believe the first two points are self-explanatory. Being that Mastodon (and the Fediverse, in general) stands firmly against data-harvesting, location data should probably not be mandatorily collected. It should be easy to either ask the user for some vague information or simply allow them to skip this step entirely, even if it might affect the user experience. Additionally, there's the issue that many servers don't make it known where they're hosted. Ideally, this could change to facilitate server selection for the users, but there's always the point that, if a server doesn't say where it's hosted, it gets pulled down by the algorithm, which in turn encourages divulging that kind of information; this might a problem solved by the solution, if you get my meaning.

What I mean by uptime score is simply an evaluation of the server's uptime history. For example, it's not good policy to direct users towards servers that are often unavailable, it might be disadvantageous to direct users to servers with too-frequent downtime for maintenance, and so on. As such, the server auto-selector should calculate a sort of "score" for any server that fits the first two points. I can't say how this should be calculated, exactly, but I'm sure some computer-knowers out there can come up with a less-than-terrible methodology for this.

The last point is something that I think should be taken into account as well, regarding the user-count of the servers. As I mentioned, we can't funnel users towards a single server, but another issue is that we should actually encourage user dispersion over many servers. The outlined method might already do this to a sufficient extent, but I suggest doing some sort of randomization of filtered servers based on user-count. I think it's wrong to simply plug a new user into the least-populated server around, but I do think that over-populated servers, in a relative sense, should be discouraged by the server-selector.

Worst case scenario, a random server that passes the uptime score point can be selected for any new user.

The onboarding experience

Basically, this should be as simple as possible. The more questions need to be answered, the worse.

I think a simple "Join Mastodon" button is the best. Just a big blue button in the middle of the homepage.

Server selection should start as soon as the new user accesses the joinmastodon website, and clicking the button simply redirects the user to the sign-up process for that server.

I believe this approach would increase adoption of Mastodon by streamlining the server selection process, as well as help the continuous decentralization of the Fediverse.

The Feed Problem

Another significant issue with Mastodon is the feed and community/discovery aspects.

Creating a new Mastodon account yields... Nothing. An empty feed!

This is absolutely terrible and ruins user retention. I've had several people tell me that this first-experience emptiness completely turned them off from Mastodon. It's not intuitive, and it needs to be corrected.

A simple solution

Mastodon does have feeds, but they're all tucked away in the Explore and Live Feeds tabs.

I think the single biggest change that Mastodon can make, as far as this goes, is to shift the Explore->Posts feed to the Home tab. Just do it like Twitter or Bluesky, make the discovery feed the first thing a new user encounters.

That, by itself, should make a difference in terms of user retention.

---

Maybe I'm delusional and severely underestimating how doable this is, but I really believe Mastodon needs to change the way it deals with new users if we want it to actually grow into a strong social media, keyword social (it needs people).

Thoughts?

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/56496251

I'd like to add to suggest a couple of things regarding Mastodon and user onboarding/retention.

The Server Selection Problem^TM^

The single biggest problem with Mastodon adoption is the fact people see talk about a server and give up. As such, servers need to be removed from the conversation and onboarding process. A server still needs to be selected for a new user, however, which raises the question: How should we select a server for a new user?

The obvious solution is to simply direct users to mastodon.social, which is actually what Mastodon already does to a certain extent. The issue with this is that the Fediverse is meant to be decentralized. As such, it's counterproductive to funnel people towards a single server. This causes maintenance bottlenecks and privacy/data-protection concerns.

As such, there needs to be some sort of method that ranks servers based on a few factors in order to select the optimal server for any given user, while keeping the decentralized nature of the Fediverse in mind.

Why any server?

First, it's important to answer the question of why would any given user pick any given server.

Generally speaking, the server isn't a big deal, as in, any server allows users to interact with the whole of the network in its full capacity.

All servers are Mastodon, after all.

However, there are differences. The most significant ones are, I'd say: location, uptime, and language.

A user benefits from being registered to a server that's geographically close to them, as that leads to a better connection. Additionally, servers with high uptime and stability are preferred, as users may have different times they use the server and nobody likes to try and access a server and see that it's down for any number of reasons. Finally, users need to be able to understand the language the server is in (obviously).

I believe these three factors should be at the forefront of the decision-making process for deciding what server to be suggested to any given user on sign-up.

Auto-selector

With that, comes the solution: a server auto-selector. A game I play, DCSS, actually does something similar for online play.

(I have my location turned off and there are very few servers, as you can see, so listing them is trivial.)

This isn't exactly a novel scientific breakthrough, but I think it's a significant notion for helping the onboarding process for new Mastodon users.

A server auto-selector should filter servers to suggest by following these steps:

• Detect the user's system language.
• Detect the user's location.
• Calculate the server's uptime score.
• Pseudo-rank user-count.

I believe the first two points are self-explanatory. Being that Mastodon (and the Fediverse, in general) stands firmly against data-harvesting, location data should probably not be mandatorily collected. It should be easy to either ask the user for some vague information or simply allow them to skip this step entirely, even if it might affect the user experience. Additionally, there's the issue that many servers don't make it known where they're hosted. Ideally, this could change to facilitate server selection for the users, but there's always the point that, if a server doesn't say where it's hosted, it gets pulled down by the algorithm, which in turn encourages divulging that kind of information; this might a problem solved by the solution, if you get my meaning.

What I mean by uptime score is simply an evaluation of the server's uptime history. For example, it's not good policy to direct users towards servers that are often unavailable, it might be disadvantageous to direct users to servers with too-frequent downtime for maintenance, and so on. As such, the server auto-selector should calculate a sort of "score" for any server that fits the first two points. I can't say how this should be calculated, exactly, but I'm sure some computer-knowers out there can come up with a less-than-terrible methodology for this.

The last point is something that I think should be taken into account as well, regarding the user-count of the servers. As I mentioned, we can't funnel users towards a single server, but another issue is that we should actually encourage user dispersion over many servers. The outlined method might already do this to a sufficient extent, but I suggest doing some sort of randomization of filtered servers based on user-count. I think it's wrong to simply plug a new user into the least-populated server around, but I do think that over-populated servers, in a relative sense, should be discouraged by the server-selector.

Worst case scenario, a random server that passes the uptime score point can be selected for any new user.

The onboarding experience

Basically, this should be as simple as possible. The more questions need to be answered, the worse.

I think a simple "Join Mastodon" button is the best. Just a big blue button in the middle of the homepage.

Server selection should start as soon as the new user accesses the joinmastodon website, and clicking the button simply redirects the user to the sign-up process for that server.

I believe this approach would increase adoption of Mastodon by streamlining the server selection process, as well as help the continuous decentralization of the Fediverse.

The Feed Problem

Another significant issue with Mastodon is the feed and community/discovery aspects.

Creating a new Mastodon account yields... Nothing. An empty feed!

This is absolutely terrible and ruins user retention. I've had several people tell me that this first-experience emptiness completely turned them off from Mastodon. It's not intuitive, and it needs to be corrected.

A simple solution

Mastodon does have feeds, but they're all tucked away in the Explore and Live Feeds tabs.

I think the single biggest change that Mastodon can make, as far as this goes, is to shift the Explore->Posts feed to the Home tab. Just do it like Twitter or Bluesky, make the discovery feed the first thing a new user encounters.

That, by itself, should make a difference in terms of user retention.

---

Maybe I'm delusional and severely underestimating how doable this is, but I really believe Mastodon needs to change the way it deals with new users if we want it to actually grow into a strong social media, keyword social (it needs people).

Thoughts?

I'd like to add to suggest a couple of things regarding Mastodon and user onboarding/retention.

The Server Selection Problem^TM^

The single biggest problem with Mastodon adoption is the fact people see talk about a server and give up. As such, servers need to be removed from the conversation and onboarding process. A server still needs to be selected for a new user, however, which raises the question: How should we select a server for a new user?

The obvious solution is to simply direct users to mastodon.social, which is actually what Mastodon already does to a certain extent. The issue with this is that the Fediverse is meant to be decentralized. As such, it's counterproductive to funnel people towards a single server. This causes maintenance bottlenecks and privacy/data-protection concerns.

As such, there needs to be some sort of method that ranks servers based on a few factors in order to select the optimal server for any given user, while keeping the decentralized nature of the Fediverse in mind.

Why any server?

First, it's important to answer the question of why would any given user pick any given server.

Generally speaking, the server isn't a big deal, as in, any server allows users to interact with the whole of the network in its full capacity.

All servers are Mastodon, after all.

However, there are differences. The most significant ones are, I'd say: location, uptime, and language.

A user benefits from being registered to a server that's geographically close to them, as that leads to a better connection. Additionally, servers with high uptime and stability are preferred, as users may have different times they use the server and nobody likes to try and access a server and see that it's down for any number of reasons. Finally, users need to be able to understand the language the server is in (obviously).

I believe these three factors should be at the forefront of the decision-making process for deciding what server to be suggested to any given user on sign-up.

Auto-selector

With that, comes the solution: a server auto-selector. A game I play, DCSS, actually does something similar for online play.

(I have my location turned off and there are very few servers, as you can see, so listing them is trivial.)

This isn't exactly a novel scientific breakthrough, but I think it's a significant notion for helping the onboarding process for new Mastodon users.

A server auto-selector should filter servers to suggest by following these steps:

• Detect the user's system language.
• Detect the user's location.
• Calculate the server's uptime score.
• Pseudo-rank user-count.

I believe the first two points are self-explanatory. Being that Mastodon (and the Fediverse, in general) stands firmly against data-harvesting, location data should probably not be mandatorily collected. It should be easy to either ask the user for some vague information or simply allow them to skip this step entirely, even if it might affect the user experience. Additionally, there's the issue that many servers don't make it known where they're hosted. Ideally, this could change to facilitate server selection for the users, but there's always the point that, if a server doesn't say where it's hosted, it gets pulled down by the algorithm, which in turn encourages divulging that kind of information; this might a problem solved by the solution, if you get my meaning.

What I mean by uptime score is simply an evaluation of the server's uptime history. For example, it's not good policy to direct users towards servers that are often unavailable, it might be disadvantageous to direct users to servers with too-frequent downtime for maintenance, and so on. As such, the server auto-selector should calculate a sort of "score" for any server that fits the first two points. I can't say how this should be calculated, exactly, but I'm sure some computer-knowers out there can come up with a less-than-terrible methodology for this.

The last point is something that I think should be taken into account as well, regarding the user-count of the servers. As I mentioned, we can't funnel users towards a single server, but another issue is that we should actually encourage user dispersion over many servers. The outlined method might already do this to a sufficient extent, but I suggest doing some sort of randomization of filtered servers based on user-count. I think it's wrong to simply plug a new user into the least-populated server around, but I do think that over-populated servers, in a relative sense, should be discouraged by the server-selector.

Worst case scenario, a random server that passes the uptime score point can be selected for any new user.

The onboarding experience

Basically, this should be as simple as possible. The more questions need to be answered, the worse.

I think a simple "Join Mastodon" button is the best. Just a big blue button in the middle of the homepage.

Server selection should start as soon as the new user accesses the joinmastodon website, and clicking the button simply redirects the user to the sign-up process for that server.

I believe this approach would increase adoption of Mastodon by streamlining the server selection process, as well as help the continuous decentralization of the Fediverse.

The Feed Problem

Another significant issue with Mastodon is the feed and community/discovery aspects.

Creating a new Mastodon account yields... Nothing. An empty feed!

This is absolutely terrible and ruins user retention. I've had several people tell me that this first-experience emptiness completely turned them off from Mastodon. It's not intuitive, and it needs to be corrected.

A simple solution

Mastodon does have feeds, but they're all tucked away in the Explore and Live Feeds tabs.

I think the single biggest change that Mastodon can make, as far as this goes, is to shift the Explore->Posts feed to the Home tab. Just do it like Twitter or Bluesky, make the discovery feed the first thing a new user encounters.

That, by itself, should make a difference in terms of user retention.

Maybe I'm delusional and severely underestimating how doable this is, but I really believe Mastodon needs to change the way it deals with new users if we want it to actually grow into a strong social media, keyword social (it needs people).

Thoughts?

I've been thinking about this a little bit lately, on account of the recent push on Reddit to ditch American companies and services in favour of European ones. Not that the Fediverse is European... I digress.

It seems that the single biggest hang-up people have with adopting Fediverse social media is the servers.

Lemmy's onboarding experience, for one, is absolutely terrible.

What's a server? Why do I need to join? What's the difference between the different servers?

All of these are reasonable questions, and they're not answered in a clear way at any point. This turns people away; they get confused and then give up on joining.

Mastodon is a little better, but not by a lot.

At least they highlight a server for people to join, making things a little more intuitive. Mastodon actually has a whole other issue regarding the way feeds are organized on the app, but I'll leave that for another post.

The problem with the Mastodon approach is, of course, that it heavily funnels people towards a single server. The whole point of the Fediverse is to be decentralized, so that's a rather counterproductive approach.

I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to suggest (heavily suggest) a server based on the user's location or something, maybe weighted by how many active users there are or something.

Basically, a balance needs to be struck between pushing people towards a server and not pushing everyone towards the same few servers.

Of course, many Lemmy servers don't actually disclose where they're hosted, so that could be a problem... Or not, I guess if there was a push for this system then servers might feel that it benefits them to disclose that information. Or maybe not, and that could be good too, I don't know.

The thing is that there's a problem. People see this whole "server" talk and turn tail.

Also, Lemmy looks ugly AF! There's plenty of alternative front-ends, of course,---I use Alexandrite---but it's really frustrating that the default look sucks so bad.

Sigh!

Mostly unrelated, but I'd like to talk about some stuff I'll be using going forward. Well, I hope to, anyway.

Email: Tuta
Drive: Filen.io
Map: HERE WeGo
Office: LibreOffice

The rest I haven't changed like Firefox and AntennaPod. I did also switch to the Fossify suite for my phone app, file manager, and gallery.

WhatsApp is a tough one... It's basically a must-have here. It's so engrained in day-to-day communication that not having the app is the equivalent of being a 70-year-old grandma or something. Nothing against grandmas of course, but they're not working or texting a bunch of young people everyday.

I thought that maybe Element could replace it? I think Element is more of a Discord type of thing... Some people mentioned Threema online, but that's a paid product. Signal is virtually the same as WhatsApp, but open-source and by a non-profit. Maybe it's a better option? It's not European, though. Well, a hard problem to solve, I guess.

Recently, there's been a push online for buying European and boycotting the US, on account of Trump's policies and stances on certain international issues.

I don't think that's a bad thing, but I do have some concerns. For one, let me set the record straight: if I can buy second-hand, I will buy second-hand. I've made this decision. By second-hand, I do also mean refurbished and whatnot. Basically, I'd like to give products a second life, is possible. I think that should take precedence over any political affiliation.

For example, I saw someone suggest, online, that we should buy Jack & Jones instead of Levi's jeans. OK, fine! Levi's are overhyped anyway, and Jack & Jones are way cheaper. However, I do think that buying second-hand Levi's is way better than buying new from J&J.

I do think I'll try to buy more European, though. Not like I have a lot of money to spend, but I like the idea of supporting European, and specifically national brands.

Something I want to sink some money into is a new e-book reader. I read a lot, mostly Re:Zero but I do also read a bunch of other things, as it goes. Currently, I have a Kindle 10th Gen. Not a paperwhite, just a regular Kindle. It's a little old, at this point, has quite a bit of bloat---I don't use the shop at all, I don't use the Wi-Fi or the Bluetooth either---, but worst of all, the battery drains like crazy.

Now, again, I do read a lot, maybe I'm a so-called poweruser, but this is not enough battery!

As such, I've been looking around. My dad is a fan of Kobo, it turns out, but I've also been looking at Vivlio, Pocketbook, and some other brands. My biggest issue, other than price (these things are more expensive than I expected...), is the features. I don't need, or want, these features.

I want something as simple as possible! DAMN IT!

I've still got a lot of other brands to look at, of course, but I'm really hoping I can find something worth buying.

I've been eating relatively well. Feeling good about that.

I cut down on snacks significantly this week. I did eat some chips, but it was OK.

I hope I'm losing weight, a little bit... My weight is OK, mind you, but it's a little higher than my goal, so I'll be working hard to reach it.